What to do if mountain rose becomes lignified

1. Don’t Misunderstand Lignification

Many people think that the flower stems of fleshy plants should be tender and moist. If the flower stems become woody and thin and hard, it seems to be an unhealthy sign. This is a big misunderstanding. The lignification of the flower stems of this plant is not a sign of dying, but rather a sign of stronger vitality and greater health.

2. Causes of lignification

Mountain rose produces its own lignin, which precipitates in the cell walls little by little and gradually becomes lignified. After lignification, the branches will become very hard and can bear more pressure, supporting the rosette of the mountain rose very well, and will no longer fall over or break. For fleshy mountain roses, lignification is a good thing rather than a problem with the plant.

In other words, lignification is actually what we usually call "old stumps", and tender flower stems without lignification generally become small stumps.

3. Benefits of Lignification

Woodiness has many benefits for mountain roses. After the flower stem becomes lignified, the branches will become more resistant to compression and lighter in weight. Such branches are not easy to break or fall over. After lignification, the elasticity of the branches almost disappears, thus avoiding the problem of excessive growth. Sometimes, in order to shape the mountain rose, you need to fix some tender and soft branches to make them into the desired shape, but after they become woody, they can be shaped and can maintain the desired shape without binding and fixing.

4. How to generate old piles

If you want the mountain rose to lignify and form old stumps as quickly as possible, you should pay attention to increasing light, which can promote the formation of lignin and speed up the formation of old stumps; applying nitrogen fertilizer will make the mountain rose plump and juicy, so if you want to accelerate the lignification of mountain roses, you should do the opposite and reduce the use of nitrogen.

5. How to distinguish between wilting and lignification

Wilting usually occurs locally, and the branches are usually thinner and more wrinkled than healthy branches. The rosettes on the branches will become weak due to lack of water because the dead branches stop supplying water, and will not recover after watering; lignification is that the entire branch becomes hard at the same time, and the surface of the branch is relatively smooth and strong, and the rosette flowers on it will continue to grow healthily.